Authors:

Carbon nanotube-polymer composites are promising materials for a
variety of
applications including space exploration and the aerospace
industry. In this
work, we functionalized and fabricated a series of single walled
carbon
nanotube (SWNT) composite samples using medium density
polyethylene (MDPE).
The composites were made by shear mixing melt processing of MDPE
with up to
1 wt.{\%} added pristine and functionalized SWNTs including
fluoro (F),
undecyl and urea SWNT-derivatives. The former two were prepared
as described
earlier, while the synthesis of the latter is a novel method that
has been
developed utilizing a solvent free reaction of fluoro-SWNT with
molten urea.
FTIR, Raman, and AFM data confirm that urea bonds covalently to
the SWNT
surface and displaces most of the fluorine. Initial tensile
strength (TS) of
the MDPE composites loaded with urea-F-SWNT reinforced 48{\%} and
undecyl-functionalized SWNTs show unprecedented reinforcement up
to 185{\%}
compared to neat MDPE. These preliminary results show that these
functionalized SWNT increased the mechanical strength in of MDPE
composites.
The FTIR, Raman, AFM, SEM, TEM, XPS, TGA, and TS data of studied
materials
will be presented.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2006.MAR.N32.2